What is the best photo paper in uk for pcb transfer?

[ljcox]

Have you tried any inkjet transparency plastic? It didn't melt or deform in my Laserjet, and released the toner clean, except for an edge trace. Haven't tried it again (only a few sheets left), but think if I have trouble getting more Pulsar paper, that would be my first choice as an alternative.

Do you mean the transparency plastic that is (or was) used to produce slides for overhead projectors?

I had not thought of using that. I have many sheets left over from when I made o/h slides before PowerPoint.

I recently successfully produced a double sided PCB using PnP, but as others have said, it is expensive.

So the transparencies would be much cheaper, ie. 0.

 

[olly_k]

Thanks! I guess it could be worth a try tbh I am sure this stuff I have is legit however different companies may have slightly different formulas. I was at least expecting my best results and it seems not to have happened!
I will send a pm.

 

[Edd]

I've made some bad boards with glossy inkjet paper, but I've had okay success with the thick(er) matte or satin magazine paper, such as that found in brochures for universities or cars. I always get a little toner peeling off with it though.

The last board I did, I tried the Pulsar paper. Wow. Immaculate. One pack of paper and foil will last me years.

At the end of the day, yes junk mail magazines will help you do toner transfer for free, but the proper stuff works a lot better and still only costs about 20 cents per transfer (depending on size of PCB). Why stuff around? Unless you've got a system down that's working reliably (as it sounds like Hero has), is hours of your time worth less than a few bucks?

 

[olly_k]

Hi Edd sounds good! I like to think you use a Brother printer too? I have found the expensive paper is the stuff that bubbles up for me more often than not.
Regards the cash, I am skint atm so all this time spent is not such a bad thing, although getting a bit monotonous tbh. Out of interest how much do you get per pack it says £9.99 on the website linked to earlier but does not say what you get!

 

[Edd]

I use a Xerox C525A, which seems to work well. I'm not sure about Brother, I read somewhere that their toners melt at a higher temperature to the other brands, but obviously it doesn't hurt to try if that's what you have anyway.

For Pulsar stuff, you need a pack of the transfer paper (10 US Letter sized sheets), plus a roll of green foil to seal the toner. White foil is optional for making a silkscreen, but you can just use the green foil to make a green silkscreen if you want to. (Pretty sure the converse is NOT true, ie. you shouldn't use the white for sealing the toner, as it's thicker and more sticky, but you can use the green for either sealing or silkscreen.)

I think green foil would cost you about £5? So roughly £15 to get up and running with paper and foil. Note that Press and Peel has both the transfer paper and the blue sealing foil built in. Apparently Pulsar works better for this reason. It's also cheaper, as with PnP you only get 5 A4 sheets for about $35 (£20?).

Edit: If you are having trouble with your Brother printer, try taking some of the PnP to a photocopier and seeing if you have any more success. Hopefully it's not your printer, but you don't want to be troubleshooting too many things at once.